I actually do wonder how much the cultural paradigm will shift and what it'll mean in the future. will we be so scared by the previous failed state that we will squash innovation or ambition wherever it's found for fear that it bring about another technocracy or corporatocracy? Will the simple act of leaving the cave to call back to Plato's allegory be looked at as foolish hubris? "If man was meant to leave the cave God would not have made the sun's light so blinding. "
I don't know. It does seem like no matter what we do or what we try. The consiquences in the long run end up being disastrous.
I very much doubt it will go that far.
I think we are in for something akin to the holy roman empire, where you after the civil wars are over you get a arch traditionalist who says fuck it no more social experiements. I don't think there will be a major technological regression and in fact I think progress will be made. But it will be more like mastery of the tech and science we already have instead of major break throughs.
However, since this includes things like fusion, solar power, space travel, cybernetics and the like I would hardly call that a major loss.